Cliche alert: just as railroads influenced settlement patterns and economics of the 19th century, and automobiles influenced settlement, commerce, and recreation in the 20th century, computer networks will influence how we live, work, and move (and how and even whether we move) in the 21st century.

William Mitchell, from MIT, is one of the first scholars to rigorously examine this modern cliche, and draws heavily on the history of architecture, and urbanism. If you suspect there is truth in these truisms, and want to get beyond facile sloganeering prophesying an infintely ductile future, I highly recommend this book. Mitchell does a very job of explaining not just how things are likely to change, but also of examining historical precendents such as telephony, and to what degree previous prognostications came true.

Cliche alert: just as railroads influenced settlement patterns and economics of the 19th century, and automobiles influenced settlement, commerce, and recreation in the 20th century, computer networks will influence how we live, work, and move (and how and even whether we move) in the 21st century.

William Mitchell, from MIT, is one of the first scholars to rigorously examine this modern cliche, and draws heavily on the history of architecture, and urbanism. If you suspect there is truth in these truisms, and want to get beyond facile sloganeering prophesying an infintely ductile future, I highly recommend this book. Mitchell does a very job of explaining not just how things are likely to change, but also of examining historical precendents such as telephony, and to what degree previous prognostications came true.

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We're not all about to become "rootless, laptop-toting, cellphoning nomads"--thank goodness! This is the reassuring message of William J. Mitchell's latest volume, which imagines how digital technology will shape our cities and communities in the future.

Witty, lucid and objective, futurist guru Mitchell examines how "smart" (ie technologically adapted) places, buildings and clothes, will change our relationships with other people and objects. Essentially, that means more working from home (which will affect housing), friendlier neighbourhoods (because we can link up more easily) and globalisation carried to bizarre ends (very-low-wage workers in Africa can watch video monitors connected to security cameras in New York).

Mitchell makes the exciting argument that we can fashion the new world in the way we want. It will be possible for the affluent elite to use technology to create privileged enclaves: Silicon Valley professionals can already commute to their campus workplaces barely noticing the crime-ridden areas; alternatively, architects and urban designers can help to create social groups that intersect and overlap.

This is an important book for politicians and would-be entrepreneurs. Mitchell predicts many changes: for example, cooks, gardeners and nannies will be earn big bucks because they provide services which cannot be automated, but the value of information-related services (lawyers and accountants) will go down. But while the computer networks of the future will change politics, work patterns and purchasing habits, Mitchell takes the position that urban planning should still focus on the cultural, scenic and climatic attractions of place. In the end Mitchell's vision is neither a utopia or a dystopia, but a convincing portrait of life in the ditigal age. --Brian Jenner

In these notes we construct an inner model with a Woodin cardinal, and develop fine structure theory for this model. Our model is of the form L[E], where E is a coherent sequence of extenders, and our work builds upon the existing theory of such models. In particular, we rely upon the fine structure theory of L[E] models with strong cardinals, which is due to Jensen, Solovay, Dodd-Jensen, and Mitchell, and upon the theory of iteration trees and "backgrounded" L[EJ models with Woodin cardinals, which is due to Martin and Steel. Our work is what results when fine structure meets iteration trees. One of our motivations was the desire to remove the severe limitations on the theory developed in [MS] caused by its use of an external comparison process. Because of this defect, the internal theory ofthe model L[E] constructed in [MS] is to a large extent a mystery. For example it is open whether the L[EJ of [MS] satisfies GCH. Moreover, the use of an external comparison process blocks the natural generalization to models with infinitely many Woodin cardinals of even the result [MS] does prove about L[E], that L[E] F= CH + ~ has a definable wellordering. Our strategy for making the comparison process internal is due to Mitchell and actually predates [MS]. The strategy includes taking finely calibrated partial ultrapowers ("dropping to a mouse") at certain stages in the comparison process.

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Since the 1997 completion of what many consider his greatest achievementthe stunning Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, SpainFrank O. Gehry has soared to the forefront of contemporary American architecture. Long recognized by his peers for his innovative designs, Gehry now enjoys a new level of prominence in the popular imagination. This book, the catalogue of the first large-scale retrospective of Gehrys work in 15 years, examines the architects unique vision and provides the historical perspective with which to interpret his audacious accomplishments.

Essays by noted museum curators and architectural historians explore his iconoclastic spirit and trace his melding of unconventional materials and forms. Photographs, drawings, plans, and scale models communicate the breadth and complexity of Gehrys work and show how, in his view of architecture as sculptural space, Gehry has opened up a world of new possibilities for architecture.

In the 1990s, MIT began a billion-dollar building program that transformed its outdated, run-down campus into an architectural showplace. Funded by the high-tech boom of the 1990s and and driven by a pent-up demand for new space, MIT's ambitious rebuilding produced five major works of architecture: Kevin Roche's Zesiger Sports and Fitness Center, Steven Holl's Simmons Hall, Frank Gehry's Stata Center, Charles Correa's Brain and Cognitive Science Complex, and Fumihiko Maki's still-unrealized project for the Media Laboratory. In Imagining MIT, William Mitchell (who served as architectural adviser to MIT president Charles Vest) offers a critical, behind-the-scenes view of MIT's new buildings and the complex processes that produced them. The story is not simply one of commissions, projects, CAD, and hardhats; it is about all the forces that come into play--including money, politics, institutional dynamics, and ideology--when a major university campus is imagined, designed, and built. Lavishly illustrated with architectural photographs, drawings, plans, and models, with color images throughout, Imagining MIT shows both the opportunities and the obstacles facing architectural production and city building at the dawn of a new millennium.Mitchell challenges and subverts the standard form of architectural narrative--the mythic tale of heroic designers and enlightened patrons who overcome adversity to realize their visions. Instead, he offers a Rashomon-like construction of multiple voices and viewpoints. He sets the scene by recounting the history of MIT campus architecture, from its early synthesis of classicism and pragmatism to the daring mid-twentieth-century modernism of Alvar Aalto and Eero Saarinen. The descriptions and illustrations of the new projects show not only the evolution of each building, but the relationship of the techniques of architectural representation--themselves evolving, from sketching and modeling to three-dimensional computer modeling and rendering--to the conception and development of architectural ideas.

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This new series assists students at all levels in developing their clinical problem-solving or reasoning skills by leading them through the 'clinical reasoning process around common presenting complaints' in the various clinical rotations. The most common diseases that the students are likely to encounter are the foundation upon which they may begin to build a more extensive diagnosis.

The Logic of Architecture is the first comprehensive, systematic, and modern treatment of the logical foundations of design thinking. It provides a detailed discussion of languages of architectural form, their specification by means of formal grammars, their interpretation, and their role in structuring design thinking.Supplemented by more than 200 original illustrations, The Logic of Architecture reexamines central issues of design theory in the light of recent advances in artificial intelligence, cognitive science, and the theory of computation. The richness of this approach permits sympathetic and constructive analysis of positions developed by a wide range of theorists and philosophers from Socrates to the present.Mitchell first considers how buildings may be described in words and shows how such descriptions may be formalized by the notation of first order predicate calculus. This leads to the idea of a critical language for speaking about the qualities of buildings. Turning to the question of representation by drawings and scale models, Mitchell then develops the notion of design worlds that provide graphic tokens which can be manipulated according to certain grammatical rules. In particular, he shows how domains of graphic compositions possible in a design world may be specified by formal shape grammars. Design worlds and critical languages are connected by showing how such languages may be interpreted in design worlds. Design processes are then viewed as computations in a design world with the objective of satisfying predicates of form and function stated in a critical language.William J. Mitchell is G. Ware and Edythe M. Travelstead Professor of Architecture at Harvard University and a founder of the Computer Aided Design Group in Los Angeles. Among the books he has authored or coauthored are The Poetics of Gardens, The Art of Computer Graphics Programming, and Computer Aided Architectural Design.

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American architect Louis I. Kahn left behind a legacy of great buildings: the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California; the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas; and the Indian Institute for Management in Ahmedabad. Yet he also left behind an equally important legacy of designs that were never realized. This exceptional volume unites those unbuilt projects with the most advanced computer-graphics technologythe first fundamentally new tool for studying space since the development of perspective in the Renaissanceto create a beautiful and poignant vision of what might have been.

Author Kent Larson has delved deep into Kahn's extensive archives to construct faithful computer models of a series of proposals the architect was not able to build: the U.S. Consulate in Luanda, Angola; the Meeting House of the Salk Institute in La Jolla; the Mikveh Israel Synagogue in Philadelphia; the Memorial to Six Million Jewish Martyrs in New York City; three proposals for the Hurva Synagogue in Jerusalem; and the Palazzo dei Congressi in Venice. The resulting computer-generated images present striking views of real buildings in real sites. Each detail is exquisitely rendered, from complex concrete textures to subtle interreflections and patterns of sunlight and shadow.

Kahn's famous statement"I thought of wrapping ruins around buildings"is borne out by the views of his unbuilt works; his rigorous exploration of tactility and sensation, light and form, is equally evident. Complementing the new computer images is extensive archival materialrough preliminary drawings, finely delineated plans, and beautiful travel sketches. Larson also presents fascinating documentation of each project, often including correspondence with the clients that shows not only the deep respect accorded the architect but the complicated circumstances that sometimes made it impossible to bring a design to fruition. Not only a historical study of Kahn's unbuilt works, this volume is in itself an intriguing alternative history of architecture.

This book provides a long-overdue vision for a new automobile era. The cars we drive today follow the same underlying design principles as the Model Ts of a hundred years ago and the tail-finned sedans of fifty years ago. In the twenty-first century, cars are still made for twentieth-century purposes. They're well suited for conveying multiple passengers over long distances at high speeds, but inefficient for providing personal mobility within cities--where most of the world's people now live. In this pathbreaking book, William Mitchell and two industry experts reimagine the automobile, describing vehicles of the near future that are green, smart, connected, and fun to drive. They roll out four big ideas that will make this both feasible and timely. First, we must transform the DNA of the automobile, basing it on electric-drive and wireless communication rather than on petroleum, the internal combustion engine, and stand-alone operation. This allows vehicles to become lighter, cleaner, and "smart" enough to avoid crashes and traffic jams. Second, automobiles will be linked by a Mobility Internet that allows them to collect and share data on traffic conditions, intelligently coordinates their movements, and keeps drivers connected to their social networks. Third, automobiles must be recharged through a convenient, cost-effective infrastructure that is integrated with smart electric grids and makes increasing use of renewable energy sources. Finally, dynamically priced markets for electricity, road space, parking space, and shared-use vehicles must be introduced to provide optimum management of urban mobility and energy systems. The fundamental reinvention of the automobile won't be easy, but it is an urgent necessity--to make urban mobility more convenient and sustainable, to make cities more livable, and to help bring the automobile industry out of crisis.Four Big Ideas That Could Transform the Automobile" Base the underlying design principles on electric-drive and wireless communications rather than the internal combustion engine and stand-alone operation" Develop the Mobility Internet for sharing traffic and travel data" Integrate electric-drive vehicles with smart electric grids that use clean, renewable energy sources" Establish dynamically priced markets for electricity, road space, parking space, and shared-use vehicles

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Artifacts (including works of architecture) play dual roles; they simultaneously perform functions and carry meaning. Columns support roofs, but while the sturdy Tuscan and Doric types traditionally signify masculinity, the slim and elegant Ionic and Corinthian kinds read as feminine. Words are often inscribed on objects. (On a door: "push" or "pull.") Today, information is digitally encoded (dematerialized) and displayed (rematerialized) to become part of many different objects, at one moment appearing on a laptop screen and at another, perhaps, on a building facade (as in Times Square). Well-designed artifacts succeed in being both useful and meaningful. In World's Greatest Architect, William Mitchell offers a series of snapshots--short essays and analyses--that examine the systems of function and meaning currently operating in our buildings, cities, and global networks. In his writing, Mitchell makes connections that aren't necessarily obvious but are always illuminating, moving in one essay from Bush-Cheney's abuse of language to Robert Venturi's argument against rigid ideology and in favor of graceful pragmatism. He traces the evolution of Las Vegas from Sin/Sign City to family-friendly resort and residential real estate boomtown. A purchase of chips leads not only to a complementary purchase of beer but to thoughts of Eames chairs (like Pringles) and Gehry (fun to imitate with tortilla chips in refried beans). As for who the world's greatest architect might be, here's a hint: he's also the oldest.